Breaking End: A look back at the Breaking Bad Finale and the Claims against it

Breaking Bad is over and so ends one of the greatest TV dramas of all time.  Like anything in the day of blogs and social media many have chimed in with their opinion.  For the most part the show got great reviews and I think most casual and hardcore fans were satisfied with the ending.  Yet, there are still those who like to poke holes.  I found many of the arguments to be weak and I decided to share my reasons why.

One of the first complaints I heard was that it was a bad idea to start both premieres with a reveal into the future, the first being the scene where Walt purchases the machine gun and the second where Walt retrieves the Ricin.  Some people felt that this gave away too much of the ending to the finale.  Bill Hader appeared on Talking Bad and stated he felt the Ricin was meant for Lydia’s tea and he was dead on.  It was clear going into the final episode that the gun was likely intended to be used on the Nazi’s.  Hader opened the door on Lydia, but I think to some it was clear it might be used on her.

Many have argued if they would have saved those things for the final episode they would have been more mysterious.  There are two schools of thought.  The first school is that they should have skipped the scenes altogether.  That would meant that the gun would randomly pop out of the trunk and Walt would simply revealed to Lydia that he poisoned her. 

If the writers would have gone that way then you would have many people up in arms as to how Walt got the Ricin and how did he have time to rig up that gun and where did he buy it.  Instantly people would have jumped on those holes as too farfetched and felt he didn’t have the opportunity to excute them.  The second belief was that maybe these things should have happened in the finale in sequence. 

This argument bares some weight.  If we just take off from the end of Season 4 and build to the season 5B finale in total order with no future details then the finale might have been even more surprising, but wouldn’t everything that happens simply fall into place the same way.  We would know once Walt grabs the Ricin that he plans to use it and most likely it’s for Lydia.  The scenes would happen in sequence and we all knew that the gun would be used against the Nazis.  What’s so surprising about all that?

What many missed was that the writers decided to use these peeks into the future to create even more interest and misdirection.  The entire first season we are left wondering who will Walt use the gun on?  I think at first we assume that it somehow ties back to overseas buyers, or the other dealer that he trades with.  At no point in the first season did I believe it was intended for the Nazi’s.  I thought it was intended to be used on Hank near the end or the DEA, but that never made sense to me. 

The whole purpose was to get your mind racing and misdirect you to overthinking the whole situation.  By episode 7B I had figured out it was likely going to be used by Walt to rescue his money, not Jessie, from the Nazis.  It was just a brilliant rib and later the Ricin at the start of the 5B gave us that same misdirection situation.  I think most had to believe he was going to try to poison Jessie.  If Hader had not stated his belief I likely don’t think it’s for Lydia until that coffee shop scene starts.

So what I think happened was some people were upset because you figure these things out right before they happen and maybe they wanted it to be a secret, but did anyone really believe Walt was going to Rambo with that gun in his health condition?  So I think this gripe bears little weight.  The two items came mysterious because he grabbed them early on.

Tying back into this point some people were confused as to why Walt would kill Lydia.  That maybe her death was unnecessary and Walt didn’t have a strong reason to kill her.  Now the easy answer to this is that Walt finds out that Todd threatened Sklyar and the family if they ever talked.  In that scene Todd tells Sklyer to forget he ever met Lydia at the carwash.  So naturally that’s why Walt offed her, but the events happen out of sequence.  He poisons her then gets the information from Skylar.

Many then might argue that he did it because of what they did to Jessie, but again he doesn’t even know Jessie is alive and assumes he is dead after they take him away.  So maybe everyone is right.  Why kill Lydia?  The answer is quiet simple.  Walt is a genius.  He realizes in the shootout scene that his value to the Nazi’s is diminished and they no longer respect or fear him.  This is likely because they have 60 million of his money and Lydia has got them into the meth business. 

So yes Walt’s ego takes a hit, but when the facts starting getting fully uncovered eventually things will tie back to Lydia.  When she gets busted that will put heat on Walt’s family, which is what he’s trying to avoid.  Killing Lydia assures that all the connecting important pieces are gone and the police won’t pursue things much further.  No loose ends.

A big complaint, and one I saw coming after watching the finale, was that the episode put everything to rest in a too convenient manner.  The reason I saw this as a complaint was that the episode was banging out resolutions in scene after scene.  This also went in the most contrast to the Soprano’s Finale, which we all knew this would get compared heavily too.  The Soprano’s left a lot of open ended questions while Breaking Bad seemed to answer them in a very orderly sequence. 

Walt took care of his family with the money he gave the Schwartz’s, killed the Nazi’s, freed Jessie, came clean to Sklyar, saw his daughter for the last time, accepted his failure in Flynn’s eyes, and offed Lydia, just to name a few.  All these things were accomplished in one episode.  So, yes maybe that is too a litte to tighty and a lot to happen, but in reality the brilliant writing set everything in to place.  In reality Walt was not on a timeline.  He devised a plan in the time it took him to drive all the way home and executed it.  We just saw it in order and the chances things like saving Jessie and getting the call from Lydia just happened. 

We have become so conditioned for there to be questions and loose ends that we felt upset that there were so few questions, but especially no major ones. There was no Russian in the forest and fade to black.  In reality the Soprano’s was ended the way it was because of a possible movie spinoff.  The fade to black gave an excuse to either say Tony was killed there or there was more to come depending how the company decided to move forward.  Breaking Bad could have pressed on for a few more seasons, but it always risked become too much like Dexter with the central character constantly surviving miraculous situations until it became too unbelievable.

Breaking Bad gave an ended that respected the fans by leaving very little up in the air.  For those who thought they did too much and wrapped it up tiddy I say you are simply overthinking it.  For once the writers and creators respected the fans and gave them great tv.

Another argument that received some criticism and I thought very unjustly, was that the Schwartz’s would go to the DEA.  I won’t even give that argument the time of day.  After Walt admitted to Sklyer what he had done on the phone the DEA was able to start connecting the dots and he apparently became a celebrity criminal and was known to the national media.  The Schwartz had every reason to fear Walt as a legitimate threat. 

He casually snuck into their house and had them gather his money for them.  They had every reason to fear him and what he was capable of.  If someone has that much money, and clearly he did as he gave it to them physically, you have every reason to believe that the he could have hired hit-men to get rid of you.

I think that his death sequence would only reaffirm to me that he was not to be trifled with once that hit the news.  So, I don’t think they go to the DEA especially considering they had nothing to gain by doing it except living in fear that Walt was serious.  He could have also had Badger and Skinny Pete leave reminders that this needed be done, but that may be a bit of stretch.  Still it was great that they were included in the episode.

This was the weakest gripe I heard and I was surprised I heard it so much.  I think this was derived from those who wanted to see Walt fail.  There was a large group of those people and it was understandable.  Still I think if I was in reality in the shoes of the Schwartz’s living the high life there would be no reason to gamble on Walt having really hired hit-men.  That’s what the point of the red dots was.  To really drive the point that they were under threat, pardon the pun.

The last argument I heard was one that surprised me during the finale, but made sense to me almost instantly after.  I foresaw that Walt would rescue Jessie, but then Walt would allow Jessie to exact revenge by killing him.  Many were flustered when Jessie did not kill Walt and no one was buying that Jessie wouldn’t pull the trigger considering what Walt had done.

Walt allowed Jessie’s girlfriend to die in season 2, poisoned Brock, told the Nazi’s to kill Jessie, indirectly caused his capture and murder of his latest girlfriend leaving Brock motherless.  So yes Jessie had a bunch of reasons to kill Walt, but he didn’t.  Does that make sense?

In the end to me yes it totally does.  When Jessie told Walt to admit that he wanted this I thought for sure he would pull the trigger, but he didn’t.  That shocked me, but then it all aligned. Jessie was a punk kid who came almost full circle in the end realizing the value of life.  He changed in the end into somebody who wanted to do the right thing.  He realized that decisions have consequences.  He realized that killing Walt made him no better than what Walt had become.  That was not who Jessie had become and that’s why he left it there.  He may have also realized Walt was shot and would likely not survive, but regardless of that fact he made the right decision. 

The trailer for the finale started with the scene where Walt talks about chemistry being the science of change.  That shows out in the final scene with Jessie.  Walt had changed into someone he thought he wanted to be, but Jessie had changed into someone who he refused to become.  Through the entire series we were always hoping that Jessie would stop being a punk who used drugs and become responsible.  He time and time again had the chance to do it, but it wasn’t until the final season that he made the transformation completely. 

No show was without faults.  Breaking Bad was no exception, but the writers did very well to keep things as believable as possible and they often times surprised us with logical twists that we rarely ever saw coming.  That’s what made the show great.  Maybe some people were let off a bit because some things were predictable.  Yet, that was necessary so the writers could have an ending that made sense.  What I think a lot of people missed and what I realized a few hours after completing the finale was the ultimate trick played on us by the writers.

Throughout season 5 Walt does things that make you really despise who he is.  I rooted for him and Jessie for the first 4 seasons, but in the end I was rooting for Walt to get taken down and Jessie to get out because he had become a good person.  After Hank is killed I thought Walt might come back to the pack, but he still wants Jessie kills and he goes wild on his family taking the baby away.  At that point I think many Walt supporters realized the evil person he had become.  That maybe Walt had gone too far.

In second to last episode Walt becomes extremely selfish in his meeting with Saul.  You start to root against even more.  It’s at that point I was just hoping that he ended up on the wrong end of things.  Often in the show Walt does thing that make your skin crawl.  He makes really stubborn decisions that as a viewer you openly disagree with.  He of course does not follow the direction of his handler and leaves the cabin.  He contact his son Flynn who refuses the money he wants to the family and then he makes a call to get himself caught and you realize that in a way Walt has given up.  Then he sees the Schwartz’s on TV and becomes motivated.  I thought he was motivated in the wrong light.  I thought he wanted to prove who Hisenberg truly was and leave his stamp on everything and everybody. 

What they did in the final episode was transform Walt back into the hero that we all wanted him to be at some point or another, or at least most of us.  They did it in such a crafty way I didn’t even realize they had done it.  By the end of the episode I’m hoping that he dies so the police don’t arrest him.  I think part of me was maybe hoping he even got away.  How did they do this?  With great writing they turned a modest man into a villain and once he reached the apex of evil they brilliantly turned him into a great hero.  It was a master stroke. 

When the gun took out all the Nazi’s I am sure I wasn’t the only one that screamed hell yeah.  When the leader of the Nazi’s thought Walt still wanted the money, but Walt instantly shot him I realized he had changed.  They somehow made Walt into the hero again and many soaked it in.  It was extremely fitting that he could die in the lab where he was truly at his best.  A much better ending than I could have dreamed up and a fitting end to the greatest television character ever written and perhaps greatest show too.  Time will tell all things.